tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28062496.post1411268934988135474..comments2023-03-22T06:47:40.952-05:00Comments on Quibbling Potatoes: Health Care Reform - It's Gonna SuckSteven Bellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063704124730207897noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28062496.post-17555660891516946372009-08-24T08:47:14.328-05:002009-08-24T08:47:14.328-05:00I completely agree with your assertion that grand ...I completely agree with your assertion that grand reform was never possible in one fell swoop. Which is why I don't understand why we're trying to do it that way. This health care reform takes the form of one bill passing through several committees and taking months to plan and finagle through Congress. I guess I thought for some reason that health care reform had to be done all at once due to some parliamentary procedure or something, because it sure doesn't make a lot of sense to do everything all at once otherwise.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14737277731248428907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28062496.post-67569408990614259902009-08-23T10:23:34.280-05:002009-08-23T10:23:34.280-05:00"Health care reform as the President original..."Health care reform as the President originally really wanted it?" Didn't he campaign on an even more minimal health care overhaul? Like, subsidies for the poor to purchase from insurance companies, and no mandate at all? I guess my expectations were just lower than everyone else's (about health care reform, at least) to begin with. <br /><br />I don't think I ever thought grand reform was possible in one fell swoop. It always seemed to me like they'd have a much easier time passing this issue-by-specific issue, reform-by-specific reform, and slowly growing the program. Creating a giant new social contract/entitlement program that sits outside the regular fiscal system is a huge deal, and obviously something we haven't done in decades. It just doesn't seem politically feasible anymore. <br /><br />I know Democrats get frustrated when they look at their majority in both houses (hell, supermajority, technically), but they don't seem to get that so many of the gains were made by running conservative Democrats in conservative areas. Were people really stupid enough to believe all these places just got really liberal over the last four years? It would've been a lot harder for the conservative Democrats to vote against, say, an April bill targeting pre-existing conditions, and then a May bill that covered medical records, and a June bill that chartered a co-op, etc. In a few years, if they're lucky, they could up the regulation of the co-op until it's basically a government-run public option in all but name. Next year when tax cuts expire and military withdrawals eliminated expeditionary expenditures they could sell those as funding health care. It'd be a lot harder to sneak "death panels" or "socialism" into things so cut-and-dry.Jacobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13539780166196461142noreply@blogger.com